To Phosban or not to Phosban

[jeffyounggren]

I am in the midst of a dying acropora war as some of you may have noticed. I am convinced that the problems began when I, in good intention, placed carbon in my tank. Whap, it all began. Well, now I am thinking of trying to reduce my phophate which I have a more than happy level of by introducing phosban. I would prefer to avoid another "whap" if I can. Good idea? Bad Idea?

Thanks

Oh, anybody in the South Bay area of CA that I can communicate with directly?

Jeff Younggren

180/ 3 250's/ Ca Reactor/ DSB/ dKh 8.2/ CA 420/skimmer/

[dolt]

Jeff - I guess I would try to figure out why all your corals did not tolerate the carbon before changing something else - any rapid changes do not seem to be tolerated well in general even if it is a favorable change (ie removal of bad things from your water) that being said I have not seen a lot of people have big problems with adding carbon but I guess it could happen - phosban is a different story - it works pretty well and causes a lot of water quality changes pretty quickly - in addition to causing phosphates to lower pretty quickly, it seems to gobble up alk and cause pH changes so I would be very cautious - there is a lot of good info in the chemistry forum about this and randy even has a few articles about it

[Uel]

The best advice I've heard on adding phosban or rowaphos to an sps tank is to start at 1/2 of the recommended amount. Yes you can use double the stated amounts, but that will make a drastic change quickly and some corals are stressed. I have had some react negatively to the addition of rowaphos at the recommended amount. I had to cut back and start over with a lower amount and have since added a Kent brand phosban style reactor with excellent results.

The carbon is puzzling, like dolt I have never heard of that causing a problem. Some sps corals are very sensitive so I guess it is possible. The only other thing I can think of is that it wasn't rinsed well enough or the water used to rinse it had something "bad" in it. Did you rinse the carbon in r/o or tap water? I always use r/o water when I rinse mine.

[PITSTOP]

I have been using Phosban and carbon on my reef for almost 2 years without a problem - I run 2 separate phosban reactors - 1 for carbon, 1 for phosban.

I like them, when I refresh the media, the corals love it - they always glow, but even more so with fresh media.

How are you using the carbon? Directly in the display?

[jeffyounggren]

Well, it sounds like there is disagreement on the carbon but I am convinced that was the catalyst for my difficulties. I did nothing else to the tank and right after I put the carbon in the bleaching started. Could be correlation but I have been battling that disease for some two months now. I have noticed the phosphate rise, so that is a possible source. I will put the Phosban in but at fifty percent the recommended dosage and walk it up. I have lost some beautiful corals and really am getting close to deciding that outside of water changes, leave it alone. Hmmm

Thanks

Jeff

[jeffyounggren]

THe carbon was in the sump

[J_Geisinger000]

Im with pit stop

I run one reactor for carbon and one for phosban :fun4:

[fishfiend00s]

I have used carbon for years with no problems.

[jeffyounggren]

I am sure that suddenly putting carbon into the system shocked it. Or, at least I think that.

[orion76]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6665155#post6665155 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jeffyounggren
Well, it sounds like there is disagreement on the carbon but I am convinced that was the catalyst for my difficulties. I did nothing else to the tank and right after I put the carbon in the bleaching started.

Many of the most beautiful tanks in the world run carbon, it's certainly beneficial IMO and does not kill corals if used properly.

It's possible though that your water had a lot of yellow tannins in it which where removed too rapidly when you added the carbon, the sudden increased light penetration could have burned your corals, which would result in bleaching. Or it was just a coincidence, like an overheating around the same time that went unnoticed for example.

[Lunchbucket]

was you water insainly dirty before adding carbon?

what is your PO4 levels. right now?

if you start using po4 remover (which i think you should...i think everyone should)...i would start using it slowly.

Lunchbucket

[Ti]

Carbon was not the culprit, unless something was wrong with the carbon.

[jeffyounggren]

I think there multiple postings out there about how the introduction of carbon into a system can affect the corals but driving up light intensity and burning them. I think that is what I did although I did have a rather clean tank, all in all. So, not really sure. I know I am going to gradually introduce the carbon in the future. I am sick abut the beautiful corals that are now just calcium skeletons. I really started something with this but it seems to be slowing down.